Method, apparatus, and computer program product for user-specific contextual integration for a searchable enterprise platform

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products for integrating user-specific context indicators into a searchable enterprise platform. In one embodiment, an apparatus is configured to apply a learned user profile, to a set of search results to obtain a user-specific, ranked arrangement of search results. The learned user profile may be developed through the application of a machine learning and/or trained model to a set of user behaviors that have been determined or otherwise detected within an enterprise platform, such that the user-specific context in which a user&#39;s search arises can be modeled and applied to retrieved digital content items associated with a search query within the enterprise platform.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/440,465 which was filed on Dec. 30, 2016 andtitled METHOD, APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR USER-SPECIFICCONTEXTUAL INTEGRATION FOR A SEARCHABLE ENTERPRISE PLATFORM, the entirecontent of which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

An enterprise platform may support multiple distinct softwareapplications. Applicant has identified a number of deficiencies andproblems associated with searching across an enterprise platform,including problems associated with ranking search results in a mannerthat integrates contextual differences across users of the enterpriseplatform. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many ofthese identified problems have been solved by developing solutions thatare included in embodiments of the present invention, many examples ofwhich are described in detail herein.

BRIEF SUMMARY

This specification relates to providing user-specific contextintegration for a searchable enterprise platform based on detected andotherwise learned user-specific behaviors and traits within theenterprise platform. In some example embodiment, a computing entity orapparatus is configured to receive a search request from a client deviceassociated with a learned user profile; retrieve a set of learned userprofile values associated with the user profile; retrieve a set ofsearch results comprising a preliminary digital content item set that isassociated with the plurality of software applications, whereinretrieving the set of search results comprises applying the searchrequest to a first model; apply the set of search results and the set oflearned user profile values associated with the learned user profile toa second model to produce a user-specific digital content item set; andoutput the user-specific digital content item set to the client deviceassociated with the user.

In one example embodiment, an apparatus for integrating user-specificcontext indicators to a searchable enterprise platform comprising aplurality of software applications is provided, the apparatus comprisingat least one processor and at least one memory including computerprogram code, the at least one memory and the computer program codeconfigured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:receive a search request from a client device associated with a learneduser profile; retrieve a set of learned user profile values associatedwith the learned user profile; retrieve a set of search resultscomprising a preliminary digital content item set that is associatedwith the plurality of software applications, wherein retrieving the setof search results comprises applying the search request to a firstmodel; apply the set of search results and the set of learned userprofile values associated with the learned user profile to a secondmodel to produce a user-specific digital content item set; and outputthe user-specific digital content item set to the client deviceassociated with the user.

In some example implementations of such an apparatus, applying the setof search results and the set of learned user profile values associatedwith the user profile to the second model to produce the user-specificdigital content item set comprises: applying a plurality of profilecontext weights to each digital content item of the set of searchresults, wherein the profile context weights are based at least in parton the set of learned user profile values; ranking each digital contentitem of the set of search results according to the applied profilecontext weights; and arranging the set of search results according tothe ranking.

In some such example implementations, and in other exampleimplementations, the first model is a term vector model. In some suchexample implementations, and in other example implementations, thesecond model is a multiple additive regression trees model.

In some example implementations of such an apparatus, the set of learneduser profile values associated with the learned user profile comprise atleast one of: a user content consumption history and a user role withinan entity associated with the enterprise platform. In some such exampleimplementations, and in other example implementations, the user contentconsumption history contains a set of use time data associated with aset of digital content items previously viewed by the user associatedwith the learned user profile. In some such example implementations, andin other example implementations, the user content consumption historyfurther contains a topic mix identification associated with a set ofdigital content items previously viewed by the user associated with thelearned user profile.

In another example embodiment, a method is provided, the methodcomprising: receiving a search request from a client device associatedwith a learned user profile; retrieving a set of learned user profilevalues associated with the learned user profile; retrieving a set ofsearch results comprising a preliminary digital content item set that isassociated with the plurality of software applications, whereinretrieving the set of search results comprises applying the searchrequest to a first model; applying the set of search results and the setof learned user profile values associated with the learned user profileto a second model to produce a user-specific digital content item set;and outputting the user-specific digital content item set to the clientdevice associated with the user.

In some example implementations of such a method, applying the set ofsearch results and the set of learned user profile values associatedwith the user profile to the second model to produce the user-specificdigital content item set comprises: applying a plurality of profilecontext weights to each digital content item of the set of searchresults, wherein the profile context weights are based at least in parton the set of learned user profile values; ranking each digital contentitem of the set of search results according to the applied profilecontext weights; and arranging the set of search results according tothe ranking. In some such example implementations, and in other exampleimplementations, the first model is a term vector model. In some suchexample implementations, and in other example implementations, thesecond model is a multiple additive regression trees model.

In some example implementations of such a method, the set of learneduser profile values associated with the learned user profile comprise atleast one of: a user content consumption history and a user role withinan entity associated with the enterprise platform. In some such exampleimplementations, and in other example implementations, the user contentconsumption history contains a set of use time data associated with aset of digital content items previously viewed by the user associatedwith the learned user profile. In some such example implementations, andin other example implementations, the user content consumption historyfurther contains a topic mix identification associated with a set ofdigital content items previously viewed by the user associated with thelearned user profile.

In another example embodiment, a computer program product is provided,computer program product comprising at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program codeinstruction stored therein, the computer-executable program codeinstructions comprising program code instructions configured to: receivea search request from a client device associated with a learned userprofile; retrieve a set of learned user profile values associated withthe learned user profile; retrieve a set of search results comprising apreliminary digital content item set that is associated with theplurality of software applications, wherein retrieving the set of searchresults comprises applying the search request to a first model; applythe set of search results and the set of learned user profile valuesassociated with the learned user profile to a second model to produce auser-specific digital content item set; and output the user-specificdigital content item set to the client device associated with the user.

In some example implementations of such a computer program product,applying the set of search results and the set of learned user profilevalues associated with the user profile to the second model to producethe user-specific digital content item set comprises: applying aplurality of profile context weights to each digital content item of theset of search results, wherein the profile context weights are based atleast in part on the set of learned user profile values; ranking eachdigital content item of the set of search results according to theapplied profile context weights; and arranging the set of search resultsaccording to the ranking.

In some such example implementations, and in other exampleimplementations, the first model is a term vector model. In some suchexample implementations, and in other example implementations, thesecond model is a multiple additive regression trees model.

In some example implementations, the set of learned user profile valuesassociated with the learned user profile comprise at least one of: auser content consumption history and a user role within an entityassociated with the enterprise platform. In some such exampleimplementations, the user content consumption history contains a set ofuse time data associated with a set of digital content items previouslyviewed by the user associated with the learned user profile. In somesuch example implementations, the user content consumption historyfurther contains a topic mix identification associated with a set ofdigital content items previously viewed by the user associated with thelearned user profile.

The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter describedin this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and thedescription below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of thesubject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings,and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will nowbe made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn toscale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a system architecture diagram of an enterprise platform systemconfigured to practice embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an example schematic diagram of a computing entity accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example learned user profile management data flowaccording to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example context integration results ranking dataflow according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example search results ranking process accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6A illustrates an example search interface for use with embodimentsof the present invention; and

FIG. 6B illustrates an example search results interface for use withembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments of the present invention now will be described morefully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in whichsome, but not all embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, theinvention may be embodied in many different forms and should not beconstrued as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, theseembodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicablelegal requirements. The term “or” is used herein in both the alternativeand conjunctive sense, unless otherwise indicated. The terms“illustrative” and “exemplary” are used to be examples with noindication of quality level. Like numbers refer to like elementsthroughout.

Overview

Various embodiments of the invention generally relate to an enterpriseplatform that supports multiple software applications. In somesituations, an enterprise platform may establish an environment thatcontains a substantial portion (and in some cases, all) of the softwareapplications that a user may interact with in the course of the user'sendeavors. Enterprise platform systems structured in accordance withvarious embodiments of the invention are further configured to supportsearching. For example, the methods, apparatus and computer programproducts described herein are operable to receive a search query from auser operating a client device and return search results comprising adigital content item set that is associated with multiple softwareapplications within the enterprise environment. The results are arrangedfor display to the user according to various rules.

A searchable enterprise platform may utilize a network and one or morecontent repositories to provide a user with the ability to search fordigital content items across the multiple software applicationssupported by the enterprise platform. However, at least in part becausedifferent users approach search queries from different perspectives andin different contexts, different users may seek the same types ofcontent within an enterprise platform using different search termsand/or search queries. Likewise, different users may use the same orsimilar search terms and/or search queries to seek significantlydifferent content within an enterprise platform. Consequently,traditional search methodologies and traditional approaches to rankingsearch results often lead to situations where users are presented with avolume of search results that, while technically responsive to a searchquery or other search request, are not particularly relevant to and/oraligned with a particular user's needs.

The inventors have identified that, in contexts that involve anenterprise platform, it is possible to identify, collect, and processinformation associated with a potentially wide range of user behaviorsand other user information. Such behavioral trait information and otheruser-specific information can be aggregated and applied to amachine-learning model to create and develop a user-specific, learneduser profile that reflects at least some of the characteristics andother aspects that establish a context in which a particular user'ssearch arises. The inventors have also identified that the learned userprofile can be used to enhance the searching functionalities associatedwith an enterprise platform by using the learned user profile to adjustthe ranking and/or other presentation of search results for a particularuser in a manner that improves the correlation between thehighest-ranked search results and the material for which the particularuser is searching.

Definitions

As used herein, the terms “data,” “content,” “information,” and similarterms may be used interchangeably to refer to data capable of beingtransmitted, received, and/or stored in accordance with embodiments ofthe present invention. Thus, use of any such terms should not be takento limit the spirit and scope of embodiments of the present invention.Further, where a computing device is described herein to receive datafrom another computing device, it will be appreciated that the data maybe received directly from another computing device or may be receivedindirectly via one or more intermediary computing devices, such as, forexample, one or more servers, relays, routers, network access points,base stations, hosts, and/or the like, sometimes referred to herein as a“network.” Similarly, where a computing device is described herein tosend data to another computing device, it will be appreciated that thedata may be sent directly to another computing device or may be sentindirectly via one or more intermediary computing devices, such as, forexample, one or more servers, relays, routers, network access points,base stations, hosts, and/or the like.

The term “enterprise platform” or enterprise platform system refers to acomputing service that is accessible via one or more computing devicesand that is operable to provide access to a plurality of softwareapplications related to business operations of an enterprise or company.In some examples, the enterprise platform may take the form of a centralserver disposed in communication with one or more additional serversrunning software applications, and having access to one or moredatabases storing digital content items and application related dataand/or the like.

The term “software application” refers to a computer program designed toperform a group of coordinated functions, tasks, or activities for thebenefit of a user or group of users. Examples of a software applicationmay include an enterprise knowledge management and collaborationsoftware (e.g., Confluence® by Atlassian), an enterprise softwareproject planning and tracking application (e.g., Jira® by Atlassian,StatusPage® by Atlassian), a word processor, a spreadsheet, anaccounting application, a web browser, a media player, a computer codingproject collaboration engine (e.g., Bitbucket® by Atlassian, SourceTree®by Atlassian, Bamboo® by Atlassian, Clover® by Atlassian, FishEye® byAtlassian, Crucible® by Atlassian), a scheduling engine, or anelectronic networked messaging application (e.g., HipChat® byAtlassian). A software application may also refer to a collection ofsoftware applications. Software applications may be bundled for acomputer and its system software or published separately, and may becoded as proprietary, or open source. Software applications may also bebuilt for mobile platforms.

The term “client device” refers to computer hardware and/or softwarethat is configured to access a service made available by a server. Theserver is often (but not always) on another computer system, in whichcase the client device accesses the service by way of a network. Clientdevices may include, without limitation, smart phones, tablet computers,laptop computers, wearables, personal computers, enterprise computers,and the like.

The term “digital content items” refers to any electronic media contentitem that is intended to be used in either an electronic form or asprinted output and which is retrievable by or otherwise associated withany of the plurality of software applications that are accessible by theenterprise platform. A digital content item, for example, may be in theform of a stored document associated with a collaborative project withina software application. Other digital content items include images,audio files, video files, text files, and the like.

The term “user profile” refers to a collection of preferences, settings,configurations, client device identifiers, data, and informationassociated with a specific user. A profile refers therefore to theexplicit digital representation of a person's identity and other data orinformation associated with the user. A user profile configured inaccordance with the present invention is accessible by one or more ofthe software applications that are supported by the enterprise platformand, thus, may include application-specific preferences, settings,configurations, data, and information. In some embodiments, a userprofile can be used to store a description of characteristics of theuser and/or of the client device, as well as credentials and preferencesof the user.

The term “learned user profile” refers to a user profile thatincorporates information that has been identified, collected, and/orotherwise determined through the analysis of a set of actions and/orbehaviors exhibited by a user of an enterprise platform. In someembodiments, the analysis includes, but is not limited to, theapplication of one or more machine-learning models and/or algorithmsthat have been trained and/or configured to detect, classify, and/orotherwise process user actions and behaviors within an enterpriseplatform. In some situations, the learned user profile may incorporatecontextual information pertaining to a user that enables theidentification and determination of the degree to which one or moresearch results may be relevant to a user and/or a search request made bythe user.

The term “learned user profile value” refers to a qualitative and/orquantitative value that has been incorporated into a learned userprofile based at least in part on the analysis of actions and/orbehaviors exhibited by a user of an enterprise platform.

The term “search request” refers to a query for electronic documents ordigital content items submitted to an enterprise platform by a userutilizing a client device. The term “search results” refers to resultsreturned from such a query. In some examples, a user using the clientdevice may submit a query for “software project version 1.1” into aninterface and the system may return a list of digital content itemshaving keywords, metadata, or the like contained therein or associatedtherewith. The search results thus include the returned list of digitalcontent items, all keywords and metadata associated therewith, and thearrangement or ranked order of the returned list.

The term “preliminary digital content item set” refers to a group ofdigital content items identified from a query resulting from a searchrequest, where the group of digital content items is preliminary in thatit has not been filtered, reduced, enhanced, or improved using theresolved permissions profile.

The term “user-specific digital content item set” refers to a group ofdigital content items identified from a query resulting from a searchrequest, where the group of digital content items has been reordered,filtered, reduced, enhanced, or improved using the learned user profileand/or learned user profile values extracted from a learned userprofile. In this regard, the user-specific digital content item set mayrepresent a subset or modified version of the preliminary digitalcontent item set.

The term “profile context weights” refers to a set of weighting rules orfilters that may be applied to one or more items of a preliminarydigital content item set. The rules or filter may be associated with oneor more learned user profiles, learned user profile values, and thelike. Applying profile context weights to the preliminary digitalcontent item set enables ranking and arranging of the items to form theuser-specific digital content item set.

The term “digital content item creation timestamp” refers to anidentification of network time associated with the creation of a digitalcontent item. The digital content item creation timestamp can beassigned to or associated with a digital content item.

The term “digital content item access timestamp” refers to anidentification of network time associated with the access of a digitalcontent item. The digital content item access timestamp can be assignedto or associated with the digital content item.

The term “digital content item occurrence frequency” refers to a countor number of times any digital content item is returned in a set ofsearch query results. The digital content item occurrence frequency maybe associated with a software application, or may be an enterprise-widecount. For example, if a search query returns four digital content itemsthat are associated with a first software application, the digitalcontent item occurrence frequency for that digital content item for thefirst software application may be stored as an indication of four. Thedigital content item occurrence frequency may further be associated witha particular software application frequently accessed by the useraccount performing the search query.

It should be appreciated that the term “subset” describes a propersubset. A proper subset of set is portion of the set that is not equalto the set. For example, if elements A, B, and C belong to a first set,a subset including elements A and B is a proper subset of the first set.However, a subset including elements A, B, and C is not a proper subsetof the first set.

Example System Architecture

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products of the presentinvention may be embodied by any of a variety of devices. For example,the method, apparatus, and computer program product of an exampleembodiment may be embodied by a networked device (e.g., an enterpriseplatform), such as a server or other network entity, configured tocommunicate with one or more devices, such as one or more clientdevices. Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may includefixed computing devices, such as a personal computer or a computerworkstation. Still further, example embodiments may be embodied by anyof a variety of mobile devices, such as a portable digital assistant(PDA), mobile telephone, smartphone, laptop computer, tablet computer,wearable, or any combination of the aforementioned devices.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system environment 100 within whichembodiments of the present invention may operate. Users may access asearchable enterprise platform 115 via a communications network 104(e.g., the Internet, LAN, WAN, or the like) using client devices101A-101N. The searchable enterprise platform 115 may comprise a server107 in communication with one or more databases or repositories 108,109, 110, and 112A-112N.

The server 107 may be embodied as a computer or computers as known inthe art. The server 107 may provide for receiving of electronic datafrom various sources, including but not necessarily limited to theclient devices 101A-101N. For example, the server 107 may be operable toreceive and process search requests provided by the client devices101A-101N. The server 107 may facilitate the generation and providing ofvarious search results comprising digital content items.

The databases or repositories 108-110 and 112A-112N may be embodied as adata storage device such as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device ordevices, or as a separate database server or servers. The databases orrepositories 108-110 and 112A-112N include information accessed andstored by the server 107 to facilitate the operations of the searchableenterprise platform 115. For example, the databases 108-110 and112A-112N may include, without limitation, learned user profiles forusers of the searchable enterprise platform 115, user accountcredentials, use history information associated with users of thesearchable enterprise platform 115 (such as content use times, contentconsumption indications, topic mixes associated with users of thesearchable enterprise platform 115, user biographical information, userrole and/or user status information with respect to one or more entitiesassociated with the searchable enterprise platform 115, other userprofile information, learned user profile values, profile contextweights, digital content items, and/or the like.

Learned user profile repository 110 may include a learned user profilefor each user of the enterprise platform 115. The learned user profileincludes information that has been identified, collected, and/orotherwise determined through the analysis of a set of actions and/orbehaviors exhibited by a user of an enterprise platform. A user profilemay be created upon registration by a user with the enterprise platform115 and/or upon registration by the user with one or more softwareapplications and added to learned user profile repository 110. As theuser engages in interactions with, and otherwise uses, the enterpriseplatform 115, information associated with the user's actions,activities, behaviors, content consumption, content consumptionpatterns, and the like may be captured and analyzed to establish one ormore learned user profile values that may be incorporated into a user'sparticular learned user profile and stored in the learned user profilerepository 110.

Learned user profile repository 110 may further be configured and/orused such that each time a user accesses the searchable enterpriseplatform 115, the learned user profile is retrieved so that the learneduser profile can be updated and/or otherwise modified. For example, as auser engages in interactions over time with the searchable enterpriseplatform 115, additional data points and data sets associated with theuser, the content accessed and/or used by the user, and other aspects ofthe user's interaction with the searchable enterprise platform 115and/or the digital content items accessible via the searchableenterprise platform 115 may be applied to a machine learning model toadjust and improve the learned user profile of a particular user to moreaccurately reflect the use behaviors and use patterns of a particularuser.

User identity repository 109 may include a user profile and/orinformation associated with a user profile associated with a user andaccessible by the searchable enterprise platform 115. The user profileand/or the information associated with a user profile included in useridentity repository 109 may not necessarily be software applicationspecific. In some example implementation, user biographical information,user demographic information, and the like may be stored in useridentity repository 109. In some example implementations, informationregarding a user's role and/or status at an entity associated with thesearchable enterprise platform 115 may be included in user identityrepository 109. For example, it may be advantageous in the preparationof a learned user profile to be able to access information regarding theprimary tasks or functions that a user performs for an entity associatedwith the searchable enterprise platform 115 and/or whether the user isin a supervisory, managerial, technical, sales, support, and/or otherrole at the entity. In some example implementations, informationregarding the permissions associated with a particular user may also beincluded in user identity repository 109.

Use history repository 108 may include user-specific information aboutthe use and/or access of applications and/or digital content items thatare supported by the searchable enterprise platform 115. For example,information about the applications used by a particular user, the timespent with each such application, the actions or other activitiesperformed by a user in connection with each application, and the like,may be included in use history repository 108. In some exampleimplementations, information about digital content items viewed by aparticular user and/or the time spent by the user viewing each digitalcontent item may be included in use history repository 108.

As shown in FIG. 1, a user profile administrator 111 may be incorporatedinto searchable enterprise platform 115 and configured to access andinteract with use history repository 108, user identity repository 109,and/or learned user profile repository 110. In some exampleimplementations of searchable enterprise 115 and/or server 107, and asdescribed in connection with FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, user profileadministrator 111 may apply and/or use a machine learning model toinformation that is included in use history repository 108, useridentity repository 109, and/or learned user profile repository 110.Such additional processing may be performed, for example, to facilitatethe creation, use, maintenance, and/or modification of one or morelearned user profiles. In some such example implementations, additionalprocessing of the information included in the use history repository108, user identity repository 109, and/or learned user profilerepository 110 may be performed by user profile administrator 111 and/orby user profile administrator 111 in connection with one or more otheraspects of server 107, and/or in connection with another device orapparatus.

In an example implementation of additional processing involving usehistory repository 108, the additional processing may include ananalysis of the topics referenced in the digital content items that theuser has spent the most time viewing to identify one or more topic mixesthat are aligned with a particular user's typical content consumption.Upon the identification of a topic mix, such as by user profileadministrator 111, for example, the topic mix may be incorporated into alearned user profile associated with the particular user. In someexample implementations within an enterprise platform, one or moresoftware applications associated with that enterprise platform may beconfigured to generate events that identify the action taken by a givenuser and the context in which such action takes place. For example, agiven software application may be able to detect that a given user haswritten, commented on, and/or read certain content items, and generatean event and/or other data object that provides an indication of thespecific action taken by the user along with information about thecontent with which the user interacted and/or other information thatplaces the user's actions in context. Such events (which may provide,for example, both action-specific information and contextualinformation) may be used and/or aggregated in connection with thegeneration of a user profile and/or a larger population profile.

In an example implementation of additional processing involving useridentity repository 109, information about a user's role at an entityassociated with searchable enterprise platform 115, typical tasks andresponsibilities, and/or biographical information may be processed, suchas by user profile administrator 111, for example, to ascertain one ormore learned user profile values that may be incorporated into a learneduser profile associated with the particular user and included in learneduser profile repository 110.

In some example implementations, user profile administrator 111 may beconfigured to interact with learned user profile repository 110 to add,subtract, modify, and otherwise interact with learned user profilesand/or the learned user profile values that may be included in a givenlearned user profile.

While many of the example implementations discussed and otherwisereferenced herein focus on the development, use, and interaction with alearned user profile associated with a single user, it will beappreciated that embodiments of the invention may be implemented bydeveloping, using, and/or otherwise interacting with learned userprofiles that involve the aggregation of behaviors associated withmultiple users. For example, a learned population profile may bedeveloped through the monitoring, processing and/or aggregation of thebehaviors, traits, and/or other characteristics of multiple users. Insome situations, it may be advantageous to develop a learned populationprofile that reflects the aspects and actions of all, or nearly all, ofthe users of a particular platform and use that profile in connectionwith searches performed by new users and/or users who rarely interactwith the enterprise platform. With reference to FIG. 1, user profileadministrator 111 may be configured to create, modify, and otherwiseinteract with one or more population profiles in a manner similar tothat used in connection with individual learned user profiles. It willbe appreciated that in some situations (such as implementations thatinvolve small numbers of users and/or sets of users with a relativelylimited history of actions, for example) the user-specific data sets maybe insufficient to effectively train one or more models. In some suchsituations, it may be advantageous to use pooled user data (such as anaggregate of the users associated with a given entity, for example, or asubgroup thereof) to provide a stronger relevance signal than that whichmay be available for one or more given individual user profiles. It mayalso be advantageous in some example implementations to employ transferlearning techniques to provide a baseline training level to a machinelearning model to provide a more advanced starting point from whichper-entity and/or per-user models may be generated.

Content repositories 112A-N may include digital content items associatedwith software applications supported by the searchable enterpriseplatform 115. Upon creation or editing, each digital content item isindexed for search according to various metadata associated with thedigital content item. Indexing may also be based on text or otherelectronic data contained within or associated with the digital contentitem. In some situations, it may also be possible to generate one ormore topic models associated with each digital content item within arepository, and/or one or more topic models that are generallyapplicable to the combined content within a repository.

The client devices 101A-101N may be any computing device as definedabove. Electronic data received by the server 107 from the clientdevices 101A-101N may be provided in various forms and via variousmethods. For example, the client devices 101A-101N may include desktopcomputers, laptop computers, smartphones, netbooks, tablet computers,wearables, and the like.

In embodiments where a client device 101A-101N is a mobile device, suchas a smart phone or tablet, the client device 101A-101N may execute an“app” to interact with the searchable enterprise platform 115. Such appsare typically designed to execute on mobile devices, such as tablets orsmartphones. For example, an app may be provided that executes on mobiledevice operating systems such as Apple Inc.'s iOS®, Google Inc.'sAndroid®, or Microsoft Inc.'s Windows 8®. These platforms typicallyprovide frameworks that allow apps to communicate with one another andwith particular hardware and software components of mobile devices. Forexample, the mobile operating systems named above each provideframeworks for interacting with location services circuitry, wired andwireless network interfaces, user contacts, and other applications.Communication with hardware and software modules executing outside ofthe app is typically provided via application programming interfaces(APIs) provided by the mobile device operating system.

Additionally or alternatively, the client device 101A-101N may interactwith the searchable enterprise platform 115 via a web browser. As yetanother example, the client device 101A-101N may include varioushardware or firmware designed to interface with the searchableenterprise platform 115.

An example of a data flow for exchanging electronic information amongone or more client devices 101A-101N and the searchable enterpriseplatform 115 is described below.

In the depicted embodiment, the one or more client devices 101A-101N areconfigured to generate a search request that is intended to producesearch results. The search request is transmitted by wired or wirelesscommunication over the communications network 104 to the searchableenterprise platform 115. In the depicted embodiment, the search requestis provided to the search engine 105 of the server 107.

The server 107 utilizes search engine 105 to perform searches or queriesbased on the search request. The return and display of search resultsare governed by a context ranking module 106 that applies a learned userprofile to cause a ranking and/or re-ranking of search results receivedfrom the search engine 105 to reflect a likely context in which theparticular user's search arises and cause the search results that aremost likely to be highly correlated to the information sought by theuser to be displayed to the user. Context ranking module 106 receives alearned user profile, extracts or otherwise retrieves a set of learneduser profile values from the learned user profile, and applies contextranking rules and produces a user-specific digital content item set. Insome example implementations, context ranking module 106 may furtherapply profile context weights to a preliminary digital content item set,such that the user-specific digital content item set may be ranked andordered for display in an interface rendered by one or more of theclient devices 101A-101N.

It will be appreciated that databases or repositories 108-110 may be oneor more repositories, and may be part of or separate from server 107. Asdiscussed above, a user profile administrator 111 may control assignmentof learned user profile information (e.g., user content consumptionhistory, content access and/or content use timing, user identityinformation, topic mix information, learned user profile values, contextweights, etc.) stored in databases or repositories 108-110.

Example Apparatus for Implementing Embodiments of the Present Invention

The server 107 may be embodied by one or more computing systems, such asapparatus 200 shown in FIG. 2. The apparatus 200 may include a processor202, a memory 201, input/output circuitry 204, communications circuitry205, search circuitry 203, and profile management circuitry 206. Theapparatus 200 may be configured to execute the operations describedabove with respect to FIG. 1 and below with respect to FIGS. 3-5.Although these components 201-206 are described with respect tofunctional limitations, it should be understood that the particularimplementations necessarily include the use of particular hardware. Itshould also be understood that certain of these components 201-206 mayinclude similar or common hardware. For example, two sets of circuitrymay both leverage use of the same processor, network interface, storagemedium, or the like to perform their associated functions, such thatduplicate hardware is not required for each set of circuitry. The use ofthe term “circuitry” as used herein with respect to components of theapparatus should therefore be understood to include particular hardwareconfigured to perform the functions associated with the particularcircuitry as described herein.

The term “circuitry” should be understood broadly to include hardwareand, in some embodiments, software for configuring the hardware. Forexample, in some embodiments, “circuitry” may include processingcircuitry, storage media, network interfaces, input/output devices, andthe like. In some embodiments, other elements of the apparatus 200 mayprovide or supplement the functionality of particular circuitry. Forexample, the processor 202 may provide processing functionality, thememory 201 may provide storage functionality, the communicationscircuitry 205 may provide network interface functionality, and the like.

In some embodiments, the processor 202 (and/or co-processor or any otherprocessing circuitry assisting or otherwise associated with theprocessor) may be in communication with the memory 201 via a bus forpassing information among components of the apparatus. The memory 201may be non-transitory and may include, for example, one or more volatileand/or non-volatile memories. In other words, for example, the memorymay be an electronic storage device (e.g., a computer readable storagemedium). The memory 201 may be configured to store information, data,content, applications, instructions, or the like, for enabling theapparatus to carry out various functions in accordance with exampleembodiments of the present invention.

The processor 202 may be embodied in a number of different ways and may,for example, include one or more processing devices configured toperform independently. Additionally or alternatively, the processor mayinclude one or more processors configured in tandem via a bus to enableindependent execution of instructions, pipelining, and/ormultithreading. The use of the term “processing circuitry” may beunderstood to include a single core processor, a multi-core processor,multiple processors internal to the apparatus, and/or remote or “cloud”processors.

In an example embodiment, the processor 202 may be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory 201 or otherwise accessible to theprocessor. Alternatively, or additionally, the processor may beconfigured to execute hard-coded functionality. As such, whetherconfigured by hardware or software methods, or by a combination thereof,the processor may represent an entity (e.g., physically embodied incircuitry) capable of performing operations according to an embodimentof the present invention while configured accordingly.

Alternatively, as another example, when the processor is embodied as anexecutor of software instructions, the instructions may specificallyconfigure the processor to perform the algorithms and/or operationsdescribed herein when the instructions are executed.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 200 may include input/outputcircuitry 204 that may, in turn, be in communication with processor 202to provide output to the user and, in some embodiments, to receive anindication of a user input. The input/output circuitry 204 may comprisea user interface and may include a display and may comprise a web userinterface, a mobile application, a client device, a kiosk, or the like.In some embodiments, the input/output circuitry 204 may also include akeyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a touch screen, touch areas, soft keys, amicrophone, a speaker, or other input/output mechanisms. The processorand/or user interface circuitry comprising the processor may beconfigured to control one or more functions of one or more userinterface elements through computer program instructions (e.g., softwareand/or firmware) stored on a memory accessible to the processor (e.g.,memory 201, and/or the like).

The communications circuitry 205 may be any means such as a device orcircuitry embodied in either hardware or a combination of hardware andsoftware that is configured to receive and/or transmit data from/to anetwork and/or any other device, circuitry, or module in communicationwith the apparatus 200. In this regard, the communications circuitry 205may include, for example, a network interface for enablingcommunications with a wired or wireless communication network. Forexample, the communications circuitry 205 may include one or morenetwork interface cards, antennae, buses, switches, routers, modems, andsupporting hardware and/or software, or any other device suitable forenabling communications via a network. Additionally or alternatively,the communication interface may include the circuitry for interactingwith the antenna(s) to cause transmission of signals via the antenna(s)or to handle receipt of signals received via the antenna(s).

Search circuitry 203 includes hardware configured to receive searchrequests and to perform search queries based on such search requests.The search circuitry 203 may utilize processing circuitry, such as theprocessor 202, to perform these actions. The search circuitry 203 maysend and/or receive data from profile management circuitry 206. In someimplementations, the sent and/or received data may be data identifyinglearned user profiles associated with one or more users and the learneduser profile values associated with each user's learned user profile. Itshould also be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the searchcircuitry 203 may include a separate processor, specially configuredfield programmable gate array (FPGA), or application specific interfacecircuit (ASIC). In some implementations, profile management circuitry206, described below, may be sub-circuitry belonging to search circuitry203. The search circuitry 203 may be implemented using hardwarecomponents of the apparatus configured by either hardware or softwarefor implementing the functions described herein.

Profile management circuitry 206 includes hardware configured to managelearned user profiles (and portions of learned user profiles, such aslearned user profile values and/or profile context weights that may beassociated with and/or derived from a learned user profile and/or one ormore learned user profile values) for one or more users with respect toa user's access to and interaction with an enterprise platform,including but not limited to the digital content items and/or softwareapplications associated with the enterprise platform. The profilemanagement circuitry 206 may utilize processing circuitry, such as theprocessor 202, to perform these actions. However, it should also beappreciated that, in some embodiments, the profile management circuitry206 may include a separate processor, specially configured fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), or application specific interfacecircuit (ASIC) for performing the functions described herein. Profilemanagement circuitry 206 may be implemented using hardware components ofthe apparatus configured by either hardware or software for implementingthese planned functions.

As will be appreciated, any such computer program instructions and/orother type of code may be loaded onto a computer, processor or otherprogrammable apparatus's circuitry to produce a machine, such that thecomputer, processor or other programmable circuitry that execute thecode on the machine create the means for implementing various functions,including those described herein.

It is also noted that all or some of the information presented by theexample displays discussed herein can be based on data that is received,generated and/or maintained by one or more components of apparatus 200.In some embodiments, one or more external systems (such as a remotecloud computing and/or data storage system) may also be leveraged toprovide at least some of the functionality discussed herein.

As described above and as will be appreciated based on this disclosure,embodiments of the present invention may be configured as methods,mobile devices, backend network devices, and the like. Accordingly,embodiments may comprise various means including entirely of hardware orany combination of software and hardware. Furthermore, embodiments maytake the form of a computer program product on at least onenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readableprogram instructions (e.g., computer software) embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilizedincluding non-transitory hard disks, CD-ROMs, flash memory, opticalstorage devices, or magnetic storage devices.

Example Processes for User-Specific Contextual Integration

FIG. 3 illustrates an example data flow 300 that may be used inconnection with the development and use of one or more user-specificlearned user profiles and the integration of such learned user profiles(and/or learned user profile values associated with such learned userprofiles) into a searchable enterprise platform. As shown in FIG. 3, alearned user profile manager 301 may be configured to receive a uniqueuser identifier 302 which may allow the learned user profile manager 301to identify and/or otherwise determine a particular user associated withan enterprise platform, such that a user-specific learned user profilemay be developed, updated, modified and/or otherwise managed. In someexample implementations, the unique user identifier may be a user name,a user token, a network and/or platform identification value, and/or adata object that may be configured and/or used to identify a particularuser.

Learned user profile manager 301 is also configured to take as inputs awide range of user-specific information, including but not limited touser behaviors 304A-304N and/or user traits 306A-306N. It will beappreciated that the precise form and substance of user behaviors304A-304N and user traits 306A-306N may vary depending on the situationsin which a particular example implementation of data flow 300 arises,including but not limited situations that may be dependent, at least inpart, on the particular enterprise platform, software applications,users, and/or other network components and/or entities with which dataflow 300 is implemented. Any of the user behaviors and/or traitsdisclosed and/or otherwise contemplated herein may be used in exampleimplementations of data flow 300, including but not limited to thosediscussed in connection with repositories 108-110 and other aspects ofFIG. 1. For example, some implementations of data flow 300 involve theuse of user behavior information such as information associated with auser's content consumption, such as the amount of time the user spendson any given digital content item, the characteristics of digitalcontent items consumed and/or otherwise used by the user, the softwareapplications used by the user, and the like. Some such exampleimplementations, and other example implementations, involve the use ofuser traits, such as a role of a given user within an entity associatedwith the enterprise platform, the tasks and/or other functions performedby the user, user demographic and/or biographical information, and thelike. In some example implementations, user behavioral and/or traitinformation may be analyzed to ascertain one or more latent factorsassociated with a given user, such as one or more topic mixes that maybe used to characterize and/or categorize the types digital contentitems that are most aligned with the user's needs and interests and thesubstantive topics that are likely to be addressed in material that auser may be searching for.

As shown in FIG. 3, in response to receiving a unique user identifierand one or more sets of user behavior and/or user trait information, thelearned user profile manager produces as an output a learned userprofile. In some example implementations, the learned user profilemanager may produce the learned user profile through the use of machinelearning or a trainable model.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example data flow 400 that may be used inconnection with the development and use of one or more user-specificlearned user profiles and the integration of such learned user profiles(and/or one or more learned user profile values associated with alearned user profile) into a searchable enterprise platform. As shown inFIG. 4, content search module 401 is configured to be able to search andretrieve digital content items from content repositories 402A-402N. Anycontent repository that may be associated with and/or accessed by anenterprise platform may be used in connection with exampleimplementations of content repositories 402A-402N, including but notlimited to the content repositories 112A-112N discussed and/orreferenced in connection with FIG. 1. In response to receiving a searchrequest 403 as an input, the content search module 401 may apply one ormore content searching models and/or algorithms to identify and retrievedigital content items that are responsive to the search request 403 fromthe content repositories 402A-402N. In some example implementations, thecontent search module 401 applies a term vector model as part of thesearch and digital content item retrieval process. However, it will beappreciated that other search models, algorithms, and/or searchmechanisms may be used in example implementations of content searchmodule 401.

In some example implementations, content search module 401 may beconfigured to rewrite and/or otherwise enhance the search request 403.For example, the terms contained within a particular search request maybe analyzed to identify similar terms, which can then be appended to thesearch in a manner that allows for an identification of alignmentbetween one or more terms in the appended search and terms, topics, orother indicia that are associated with a particular repository and/ordigital content items within a given repository.

As shown in FIG. 4, content search module 401 may produce, as an output,a preliminary digital content item set 404. Preliminary digital contentitem set 404 may include all, or a subset of all, of the digital contentitems identified and retrieved from the content repositories 402A-402N.In some example implementations, the preliminary digital content itemset 404 may include a list of links, pointers, file paths, selectableelements, and/or other indicia associated with the digital content itemsidentified through the operation of content search module 401. In someexample implementations, preliminary digital content item set 404 may beexpressed as an ordered list of digital content items, based at least inpart on one or more rules associated with content search module 401and/or the model, algorithm, and/or other search mechanism applied bycontent search module 401.

As shown in FIG. 4, context integrator 406 is configured to take asinputs at least the preliminary digital content item set 404 and or morelearned user profile values 405. In response to receiving preliminarydigital content set and one or more learned user profile values, contextintegrator 406 operates to create a user-specific digital content itemset 407, which may take the form of an ordered list of digital contentitems. The order reflected in such a list may be based, at least inpart, on a determination of a degree and/or extent to which each digitalcontent item is likely to be relevant to a particular user's search andthe context in which that search arises. In some exampleimplementations, the context integrator 406 may produce the learned userprofile through the use of machine learning or a trainable model. Forexample, context integrator 406 may include a multiple additiveregression trees model, such as LambdaMART, to apply the set of learneduser profile values to the preliminary digital content item set toreorder the digital content items to prioritize the digital contentitems within the preliminary digital content item set that are mostlikely to be relevant to the specific user's needs and/or interests.

As discussed herein, the learned user profile manager 301 and/or thecontext integrator 406 may employ machine learning or a trainable modelsuch that, over time, the learned user profile manager and/or thecontext integrator 406, through receiving a plurality of userconfirmations, may improve determination of the aspects of a learneduser profile, improve the identification of digital content items withina set of search results that are most likely to be considered by theuser to be highly relevant to a search request, and/or otherwise reflectthe context in which the a specific user's search request arises.

In some embodiments, the learned user profile manager 301 may determineone or more learned user profile values to be included in a learned userprofile by analyzing user behavior data associated with a user'sinteractions with an enterprise platform and/or specific softwareapplications associated with an enterprise platform. By way of example,a user may use a client device to view and otherwise consume multipledigital content items accessible via an enterprise platform. The learneduser profile manager, via instructions executed by a user administrationmodule, profile management circuitry, or the like, may determine that alearned user profile value should be adjusted to reflect the topicsreflected in the consumed digital content items and/or the time spent bythe user in consuming the digital content items.

In some embodiments, the context integrator 406 may determine that theorder of search results contained in a preliminary digital content setshould be adjusted to reflect a different order by analyzing one or morelearned user profile values associated with the particular user thatformed and entered the particular search request. By way of example, thelearned user profile values may indicate that a user has a particularmanagerial role within an entity associated with an enterprise platformand/or that the user typically spends the most time with digital contentitems that contain a particular mix of topics. The context integrator,through the execution of instructions stored thereon and/or through theapplication of a set of rules, may apply different context weights toeach digital content item within the preliminary digital content itemset, rank each digital content item according to the applied contextweights, and arrange an ordered list of digital content items based atleast in part on the applied context weights.

In some further embodiments, the learned user profile manager and/or thecontext integrator may employ machine learning, or equivalent technologyto improve future determinations of learned user profiles and digitalcontent item sets based on learned user profiles. In some examples, thelearned user profile manager and/or the context integrator may generallyprovide a trained model that is given a set of input features, and isconfigured to provide an output of a learned user profile, a learneduser profile value for inclusion in a learned user profile, a score(such as a score of the likely relevance of a particular digital contentitem to a user and/or a user's search request, or the like. In someembodiments, a trained model can be generated using supervised learningor unsupervised learning. In some examples, such learning can occuroffline, in a system startup phase, or could occur in real-time or nearreal-time during performing the methods shown in the described figures(such as, determining learned user profile values and/or digital contentitem sets). The trained model may comprise the results of clusteringalgorithms, classifiers, neural networks, ensemble of trees in that thetrained model is configured or otherwise trained to map an input valueor input features to one of a set of predefined output items, and modifyor adapt the mapping in response to historical data returned fromprevious iterations (such as determinations of learned user profilevalues and/or digital content item sets).

Alternatively or additionally, the trained model may be trained toextract one or more features from historical data (such as past userbehavioral data, content consumption data, or other user interactiondata, for example) using pattern recognition, based on unsupervisedlearning, supervised learning, semi-supervised learning, reinforcementlearning, association rules learning, Bayesian learning, solving forprobabilistic graphical models, among other computational intelligencealgorithms that may use an interactive process to extract patterns fromdata. In some examples, the historical data may comprise data that hasbeen generated using user input, crowd based input or the like (e.g.,user confirmations).

In some examples, the learned user profile manager and/or the contextintegrator may be configured to apply a trained model to one or moreinputs to identify a set of reliability scores. For example, if theinput feature was content consumption behavior from a client device, thelearned user profile manager may apply metadata associated with theconsumed digital content items to the trained model to determine whetherthe user consumption data is accurate. In some examples, the trainedmodel would output a suggested reliability score based on other mobiledevices that had the same location data.

In some example implementations of data flow 400 that features a contextintegrator 406 that incorporates a machine-learning and/or trainedmodel, a learning to rank (LTR) approach may be used to improve therelevance ranking of search results obtained from a query receivedwithin an enterprise platform. In such an example implementation,content search module 401 may be implemented as a traditional term-basedsystem, which may be configured and used to initially recall the top Kdocuments from one or more content repositories 402A-402N. The initialresults may then be re-ranked by the context integrator 406 through theapplication of a trained LTR model according to a model trained onquery-to-document implicit relevance scores. Such query-to-documentimplicit relevance scores may be obtained by processing historic queriesand selected results. In some such example implementations, the historicqueries and selected results may be extracted from events emitted in aparticular instance of an enterprise platform targeted for training anddevelopment of a context-integration system that is capable ofre-ranking search results based on an EAC dataset, usage logs, and/orother aspects of a learned user profile.

In some examples of such implementations, a model based at least in parton the LambdaMART algorithm may be used to learn the relevance rankingfrom an assembled features set and relevance rankings. Some exampleinput features that may be used in the course of training such a modelinclude, but are not limited to: the number of query terms; the numberof matched stemmed title terms; the percentage of matched stemmed titleterms; the percentage of matched stemmed query terms; the number ofmatched unstemmed title terms; the percentage of matched unstemmed titleterms; the percentage of matched unstemmed query terms; the parameteris-personal-space; whether the space name matches current user; thenumber of query terms covered by the space terms; the percentage ofquery terms covered by space terms; the title stemmed bigram matches;the title non-stemmed bigram matches; and/or the percentage of pagevisits based on visit history (from all pages).

In some such example implementations, and in other exampleimplementations, additional inputs may be used, including but notlimited to: the underlying ranker score (from ElasticSearch BM25 scorer,for example); the number of Named Entities found in the document (usingnamed entity recognition classifier, for example); the median documentdwell time; the number of links in the document; the number of likes forthe document; the number of comments for the document; and/or the querytopic score of the document (which may involve finding the topics of thequery terms and calculating the score from the document topic mix).

In some example implementations, labels used within a model or systemused in connection with user-specific context integration based on alearned user profile may be derived from logged search events within theenterprise platform. In some such situations, the search events may beassembled into a search session by assembling the search executed by auser into a series of query-results pairs.

For example, when a significant pause (such as a pause on the order oftens of seconds, for example) is observed, a session may be deemed tohave ended. In such a situation, the page on which the pause is observedmay be labeled as highly relevant to the particular user. In an exampleimplementation, the top results (such as the top three results, forexample) from the underlying ranking obtained from ElasticSearch oranother search protocol may be ranked as “somewhat relevant”, and theremaining results may be marked as “not relevant”. In some situations, atraining set may be assembled over three months of activity to capture asnapshot of recent usage across the enterprise platform. As such, overtime, the relevance ranking of one or more results may change, due toshifting user objectives when searching and/or shifting objectives of anentity associated with the enterprise platform, for example.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an example process 500 for retrieving andarranging search results in a searchable enterprise platform. As shownat block 501, the process 500 begins by receiving a search request froma network-connected client device associated with a particular learneduser profile. The search request may include one or more queriescomprised of one or more words, numbers, letters, or other supportedcharacters and/or strings. The search queries reflected in the searchrequest are intended to encompass all digital content items and softwareapplications that are accessible or otherwise supported by theenterprise platform.

The as shown at block 502, process 500 continues by retrieving a set oflearned user profile values associated with the learned user profile. Insome example implementations of block 502, learned user profile valuesmay be extracted from a learned user profile, such as by parsing a dataobject that contains and/or is otherwise associated with a learned userprofile to acquire the particular learned user profile values that maybe relevant to a particular search request, the particular enterprisesystem environment in which the search request is made, and/or otherfactors.

The process 500 continues at block 503 by retrieving a set of searchresults comprising a preliminary digital content item set. In someexample implementations of block 503, the preliminary digital contentitem set is associated with one or more of the software applicationsthat are included with and/or otherwise associated with the enterpriseplatform. In some such example implementations, retrieving the set ofsearch results comprises applying a first model, such as a term vectormodel for example, and/or any other model that is capable of applyingsearch terms to one or more repositories of searchable digital contentitems.

As shown at block 504, the process 500 continues by applying the set ofsearch results and the set of learned user profile values to a secondmodel, such as an MART model, for example, to produce a user-specificdigital content item set. Some example implementations of block 504, andprocess 500 in general, contemplate the use of information obtained andotherwise learned through a user's interactions with an enterpriseplatform to evaluate and re-rank search results to account for theuser-specific context in which a user's search request arises and toreflect a preference for digital content items that, based on thespecific user's latent factors and/or other learned characteristics, aremost likely to meet the user-specific needs underlying the user's statedsearch request.

In some example implementations of block 504, applying the set of searchresults and the set of learned user profile values to the second modelcomprises applying profile context weights to each digital content itemof the set of search results, wherein the profile context weights arebased on the set of learned user profile values. In some such exampleimplementations, each digital content item within the set of searchresults may be ranked according to the applied profile context weights,and the set of search results may be arranged in an ordered listed basedat least in part on the ranking.

As shown at block 505, after the user-specific digital content item setis produced in connection with block 504, the user-specific digitalcontent item set is sent as output to the client device associated withthe user. In some example implementations of block 505, theuser-specific digital content item set may be structured as an orderedlist and/or an ordered set of renderable objects that can be presentedto a user via a display of the user's client device.

Some of the operations of an example implementation may be expressed asfollows, where the following terms are used in the example for purposesof clarity, and not to redefine how such terms may be used elsewhereherein:

-   -   “user” refers to the principal on whose behalf the search        operation is being performed;    -   “k” refers to the number of documents retrieved for re-ranking;    -   “search_query” refers to the user-generated search terms or        query for document retrieval;    -   “docs_top_k” refers to the documents retrieved using the term        search subsystem (such as Elasticsearch, for example);    -   “query_feature_vector” refers to a set of attributes (or        features) derived from the search query to be used in the        re-ranking model (such as LambdaMART, for example);    -   “documents_feature_vector” refers to a list of attributes (or        features) per retrieved document to be used in the re-ranking        model; and    -   “user_feature_vector” refers to a list of attributes (or        features) for the principal performing the search query. It will        be appreciated that the features here may be related to the        user's profile and historical product interactions.

Using the above terms, an algorithm in accordance with an exampleimplementation of an embodiment of the invention described and/orotherwise disclosed herein may be generally expressed as follows:

docs_top_k = term_search(search_query, k) user_feature_vector =extract_user_features(user) query_feature_vector =feature_extract(search_query) documents_feature_vectors =extract_doc_features(docs_top_k) ranked_documents =reranking_algorithm(user_feature_vector, query_feature_vector,documents_feature_vectors)wherein the ranked_documents list is returned as the results for thesearch.

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate example search interfaces for use withembodiments of the present invention. An example interface 600 comprisesan input section 601 where a user can enter a query string for searchingacross the enterprise platform. A search selection button 602 may bedisplayed on the interface 600, and a user may indicate entry of thequery string by other means such at pressing the “Enter” key on thekeyboard. A display section 603 is available for display of searchresults.

Example interface 610 includes search results 1-N 604 that are rankedaccording to the methods described herein. In some exampleimplementations, each of the search results 1-N 604 may be associatedwith a score 1-N which may reflect, for example, one or more appliedprofile context weights associated with the result, an expression of acalculated relationship between the result and the search request and/orlearned user profile, a normalized scoring of the result with respect toone or more aspects of the learned user profile, or another metricassociated with the search result. In some example implementations, thesearch result and/or score may also include an indication of thesoftware application with which the result is associated. In some suchexample implementations, the results may be further subdivided based onthe software application with which the result is associated.

It will be appreciated that, in addition to the use of learned userprofiles as presented herein, the arrangement and display of searchresults may be governed by a multitude of rules, including but notlimited to rules that may be applied when the application of profilecontext weights to digital content items results in multiple digitalcontent items having the same or similar ranks. For example, ties and/ornear ties in weighted rankings of search results may be accounted for byarranging results according to comparisons between timestamps associatedwith each digital content item. The timestamps may be compared totimestamps of other digital content items, timestamps associated with auser (e.g., when the user joined the enterprise system; the last timethe user logged into the system; etc.), timestamps associated withaccess to the digital content items, among various others.

Additional Implementation Details

Although an example processing system has been described in FIG. 2,implementations of the subject matter and the functional operationsdescribed herein can be implemented in other types of digital electroniccircuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including thestructures disclosed in this specification and their structuralequivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them.

Embodiments of the subject matter and the operations described hereincan be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computersoftware, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed inthis specification and their structural equivalents, or in combinationsof one or more of them. Embodiments of the subject matter describedherein can be implemented as one or more computer programs, i.e., one ormore modules of computer program instructions, encoded on computerstorage medium for execution by, or to control the operation of,information/data processing apparatus. Alternatively, or in addition,the program instructions can be encoded on an artificially-generatedpropagated signal, e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, orelectromagnetic signal, which is generated to encode information/datafor transmission to suitable receiver apparatus for execution by aninformation/data processing apparatus. A computer storage medium can be,or be included in, a computer-readable storage device, acomputer-readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memoryarray or device, or a combination of one or more of them. Moreover,while a computer storage medium is not a propagated signal, a computerstorage medium can be a source or destination of computer programinstructions encoded in an artificially-generated propagated signal. Thecomputer storage medium can also be, or be included in, one or moreseparate physical components or media (e.g., multiple CDs, disks, orother storage devices).

The operations described herein can be implemented as operationsperformed by an information/data processing apparatus oninformation/data stored on one or more computer-readable storage devicesor received from other sources.

The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all kinds of apparatus,devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example aprogrammable processor, a computer, a system on a chip, or multipleones, or combinations, of the foregoing. The apparatus can includespecial purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gatearray) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Theapparatus can also include, in addition to hardware, code that createsan execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g.,code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a databasemanagement system, an operating system, a cross-platform runtimeenvironment, a virtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them.The apparatus and execution environment can realize various differentcomputing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributedcomputing and grid computing infrastructures.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, script, or code) can be written in any form of programminglanguage, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative orprocedural languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as astand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, object, orother unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computerprogram may, but need not, correspond to a file in a file system. Aprogram can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programsor information/data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markuplanguage document), in a single file dedicated to the program inquestion, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store oneor more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer programcan be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computersthat are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described herein can be performed by oneor more programmable processors executing one or more computer programsto perform actions by operating on input information/data and generatingoutput. Processors suitable for the execution of a computer programinclude, by way of example, both general and special purposemicroprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digitalcomputer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions andinformation/data from a read-only memory or a random access memory orboth. The essential elements of a computer are a processor forperforming actions in accordance with instructions and one or morememory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computerwill also include, or be operatively coupled to receive information/datafrom or transfer information/data to, or both, one or more mass storagedevices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, oroptical disks. However, a computer need not have such devices. Devicessuitable for storing computer program instructions and information/datainclude all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices,including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM,EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal harddisks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROMdisks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, orincorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subjectmatter described herein can be implemented on a computer having adisplay device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystaldisplay) monitor, for displaying information/data to the user and akeyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by whichthe user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices canbe used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example,feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g.,visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input fromthe user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, ortactile input. In addition, a computer can interact with a user bysending documents to and receiving documents from a device that is usedby the user; for example, by sending web pages to a web browser on auser's client device in response to requests received from the webbrowser.

Embodiments of the subject matter described herein can be implemented ina computing system that includes a back-end component, e.g., as aninformation/data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g.,an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., aclient computer having a graphical user interface or a web browserthrough which a user can interact with an implementation of the subjectmatter described herein, or any combination of one or more suchback-end, middleware, or front-end components. The components of thesystem can be interconnected by any form or medium of digitalinformation/data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examplesof communication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and awide area network (“WAN”), an inter-network (e.g., the Internet), andpeer-to-peer networks (e.g., ad hoc peer-to-peer networks).

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other. In someembodiments, a server transmits information/data (e.g., an HTML page) toa client device (e.g., for purposes of displaying information/data toand receiving user input from a user interacting with the clientdevice). Information/data generated at the client device (e.g., a resultof the user interaction) can be received from the client device at theserver.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyinventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions.Certain features that are described herein in the context of separateembodiments can also be implemented in combination in a singleembodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in thecontext of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multipleembodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover,although features may be described above as acting in certaincombinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more featuresfrom a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from thecombination, and the claimed combination may be directed to asubcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various systemcomponents in the embodiments described above should not be understoodas requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should beunderstood that the described program components and systems cangenerally be integrated together in a single software product orpackaged into multiple software products.

Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described.Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In somecases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a differentorder and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processesdepicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require theparticular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirableresults. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallelprocessing may be advantageous.

CONCLUSION

Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forthherein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which theseinventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in theforegoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is tobe understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specificembodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments areintended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a genericand descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for integrating user-specificcontext indicators to a searchable enterprise computer software platformcomprising a plurality of software applications, the apparatuscomprising at least one processor and at least one memory includingcomputer program code, the at least one memory and the computer programcode configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatusto: receive a search request from a client device associated with alearned user profile; generate and retrieve a set of learned userprofile values associated with the learned user profile, the set oflearned user profile values associated with the learned user profilecomprising at least one of a user content use history of the enterprisecomputer software platform wherein the enterprise computer softwareplatform is configured to generate a user content use history of eventsthat identify actions taken by a given user within the enterprisecomputer software platform and the context in which the actions takeplace within the enterprise computer software platform, and a user rolewithin an entity associated with the enterprise platform, the user roleassociated with one or more primary tasks or functions; retrieve a setof search results comprising a preliminary digital content item set thatis directed to guiding the use of the plurality of softwareapplications, wherein retrieving the set of search results comprisesapplying the search request to a first model; apply the set of searchresults and the set of learned user profile values associated with thelearned user profile to a second model to produce an enterprise computersoftware platform-specific and user-specific digital content item setdirected to guiding the use of the plurality of software applications;and output the enterprise computer software platform-specific anduser-specific digital content item set to the client device associatedwith the user.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of searchresults and the set of learned user profile values associated with theuser profile are applied to the second model to produce theuser-specific digital content item set by: applying a plurality ofprofile context weights to each digital content item of the set ofsearch results, wherein the profile context weights are based at leastin part on the set of learned user profile values; ranking each digitalcontent item of the set of search results according to the appliedprofile context weights; and arranging the set of search resultsaccording to the ranking.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the firstmodel is a term vector model.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thesecond model is a multiple additive regression trees model.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the user content use history contains aset of use time data associated with a set of digital content itemspreviously viewed by the user associated with the learned user profile.6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the user content use historyfurther contains a topic mix identification associated with a set ofdigital content items previously viewed by the user associated with thelearned user profile.
 7. A method for integrating user-specific contextindicators to a searchable enterprise computer software platformcomprising a plurality of software applications: receiving a searchrequest from a client device associated with a learned user profile;retrieving a set of learned user profile values associated with thelearned user profile, wherein the set of learned user profile valuesassociated with the learned user profile comprise at least one of a usercontent use history of the enterprise computer software platform whereinthe enterprise computer software platform is configured to generate auser content use history of events that identify actions taken by agiven user within the enterprise computer software platform and thecontext in which the actions take place within the enterprise computersoftware platform, and a user role within an entity associated with theenterprise platform, the user role associated with one or more primarytasks or functions; retrieving a set of search results comprising apreliminary digital content item set that is directed to guiding the useof the plurality of software applications, wherein retrieving the set ofsearch results comprises applying the search request to a first model;applying the set of search results and the set of learned user profilevalues associated with the learned user profile to a second model toproduce an enterprise computer software platform-specific anduser-specific digital content item set directed to guiding the use ofthe plurality of software applications; and outputting the enterprisecomputer software platform-specific and user-specific digital contentitem set to the client device associated with the user.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein applying the set of search results and the set oflearned user profile values associated with the user profile to thesecond model to produce the user-specific digital content item setcomprises: applying a plurality of profile context weights to eachdigital content item of the set of search results, wherein the profilecontext weights are based at least in part on the set of learned userprofile values; ranking each digital content item of the set of searchresults according to the applied profile context weights; and arrangingthe set of search results according to the ranking.
 9. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the first model is a term vector model.
 10. The methodof claim 7, wherein the second model is a multiple additive regressiontrees model.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the user content usehistory contains a set of use time data associated with a set of digitalcontent items previously viewed by the user associated with the learneduser profile.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the user content usehistory further contains a topic mix identification associated with aset of digital content items previously viewed by the user associatedwith the learned user profile.
 13. A computer program product forintegrating user-specific context indicators to a searchable enterprisecomputer software platform comprising a plurality of softwareapplications, comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium having computer-executable program code instructionstored therein, the computer-executable program code instructionscomprising program code instructions configured to: receive a searchrequest from a client device associated with a learned user profile;retrieve a set of learned user profile values associated with thelearned user profile, retrieving a set of learned user profile valuesassociated with the learned user profile, wherein the set of learneduser profile values associated with the learned user profile comprise atleast one of a user content use history of the enterprise computersoftware platform wherein the enterprise computer software platform isconfigured to generate a user content use history of events thatidentify actions taken by a given user within the enterprise computersoftware platform and the context in which the actions take place withinthe enterprise computer software platform, and a user role within anentity associated with the enterprise platform, the user role associatedwith one or more primary tasks or functions; retrieve a set of searchresults comprising a preliminary digital content item set that isdirected to guiding the use of the plurality of software applications,wherein retrieving the set of search results comprises applying thesearch request to a first model; apply the set of search results and theset of learned user profile values associated with the learned userprofile to a second model to produce an enterprise computer softwareplatform-specific and user-specific digital content item set directed toguiding the use of the plurality of software applications; and outputthe enterprise computer software platform-specific and user-specificdigital content item set to the client device associated with the user.14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein applying the setof search results and the set of learned user profile values associatedwith the user profile to the second model to produce the user-specificdigital content item set comprises: applying a plurality of profilecontext weights to each digital content item of the set of searchresults, wherein the profile context weights are based at least in parton the set of learned user profile values; ranking each digital contentitem of the set of search results according to the applied profilecontext weights; and arranging the set of search results according tothe ranking.
 15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein thefirst model is a term vector model.
 16. The computer program product ofclaim 13, wherein the second model is a multiple additive regressiontrees model.
 17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein theuser content use history contains a set of use time data associated witha set of digital content items previously viewed by the user associatedwith the learned user profile.
 18. The computer program product of claim17, wherein the user content use history further contains a topic mixidentification associated with a set of digital content items previouslyviewed by the user associated with the learned user profile.